Warris Shah - Punjabi Poetry

[BoxerBunty]

Warris Shah is to Punjabi poetry what Chaucer was to English - the pulse beat of its people. He turned poetry into Punjabi and Punjabi into poetry. His chief contribution was the creation of the immortal Heer, the epic poem of love of Heer and Ranjha, sung by the people of Punjab in the same style and syntax without any variation since the time it was completed and composed in 1776 during the 8th invasion of Ahmed Shah Abdali. Warris Shah was 36 at that time. He lived to see his Heer sung for nearly a quarter of a century. Enthralling generations of Punjabi poets, opera writers and listeners, Warris Shah is a literary calossus who bestrode the literary scene of Punjab as no other poet did after Farid. With Warris Shah begins the modern period in Punjabi poetry. Addressing Warris Shah, Amrita Pritam, the prima donna of Punjabi poetry today, wrote after the partition holocaust: "If the tragedy of one Heer could make you cry, what would have happened if you were alive in 1947 when a million Heers were raped in the same land".

Aj akhan Warris Shah nu
Kithon kabran wichon bol
Te aj kitab-i-isbq da
Koi agla warqa phol
Ik roi si dhi Punjab di
Tu likh likh ware wain
Aj lakhan dhian rondian
Tainu Warris Shah nu kahan
Uth tak apna Punjab
Aj bele lashan wicbian
Te lahu di bhari Chenab

(Oh, Warris Shah, I ask you to speak out from your grave and turn the newpage in the Book of Love. With the cry of one daughter of Punjab you created an epic and gave her tongue a life-s lament. Today, millions of Punjab-s daughters are waling and beckoning you to come out of your grave and listen to them. 0, angel of compassion have a look at your beloved Punjab whose green pastures are littered with corpses and rivers filled with blood)